Early on a recent Thursday morning, I had breakfast in a church basement in Dorchester. Charles Street AME Church offered hospitality to church and community leaders who gathered to address youth violence in our city. It was a curious mixture of folks that gathered as the day began, a reminder that big problems cannot be solved in isolation. The Mayor of Boston and the Chief of Police addressed the group and the question of the: how can we connect with our young people in gangs and help them to find a better way? [Click here to learn how you can help.] Clergy leaders who were present organized volunteers to walk through violent areas of the city and meet the youth. These walks are taking place on Saturday mornings and you can read about them in the Boston GLOBE.
“Volunteers must always go in pairs,” the leader said. “Look out for one another’s back.” Then they were instructed always to begin their neighborhood walk with prayer, and also to keep their eyes open while addressing the Almighty. “There will always be somebody watching you and that is a potential relationship,” the leaders reminded. “Offer them your name.” Some of the volunteers looked nervous, but all of them looked determined. I looked around the room at these ordinary men and women eating scrambled eggs, and was deeply moved by their faithfulness.
A pastor spoke about the importance of consistency. He said that people will begin to count on the volunteers’ visits. The elderly will plan their trips to the store because they will feel secure. The kids in the gang will expect the walkers, even if they do not acknowledge them. He said, “People will start looking for you and count on seeing you and they will feel safer.” There was sadness in the air as we all thought about neighborhood children trapped in violence. And there was also a familiar lament from inner city clergy. Heads nodded when one pastor said, “I have done too many young funerals.”
I recalled a conversation I had several months ago with a clergy colleague in Roxbury. He asked for help in getting children away from gangs in his neighborhood. Kids who want out become targets of violence and he wants to send them to another area of the state. I was shocked to realize that this pastor is looking for a witness protection program for Boston’s middle school students. Violence is devouring the lives of our urban children.
And now this week, in particular, violence seems to have spilled over everywhere. Our nation is stunned by the murders at Virginia Tech and we watch helplessly as a university mourns its dead. All the public questions and second guessing cannot undo the horror and loss. Meanwhile, the death toll rises in Iraq and more Commonwealth soldiers are returning home for burial. And street gangs are flexing their muscles in Boston. Yesterday the same people I met at breakfast were out walking the most dangerous streets in the city, hoping to rescue young people from the vortex of violence.
If you have come to church today looking for a change of subject, you are bound to be disappointed. Our first lesson from the scriptures tells the story of an apostle who started out as a violent man. The first mention of Saul comes earlier in the Acts of the Apostles as he watched a mob stone Stephen to death for speaking publicly about Jesus. Saul held the killers’ coats so they could loosen up and throw rocks with a more deadly aim. This was the first century equivalent of a lynch mob. Saul did his part to aid and abet the murderers and once he had his first taste of blood, he wanted more. He became a bounty hunter, tracking down Jesus’ followers and turning them over to the authorities to be abused or killed.
We don’t know what made Saul so destructive, but we do know what changed him. Our reading today is about the turning point in his life. Saul, “still breathing threats and murders,” took those on the road and traveled to Damascus. But it was there on that road that he had a vision of Jesus Christ, the name that had incited his violence. Christ spoke, he challenged Saul’s violence, and he changed Saul’s life. It was Christ who turned the bounty hunter into a Christian leader and theologian. Christ transformed Saul into the man we now know as Paul.
This scene of the conversion of St. Paul is one of the most familiar stories in our scriptures. It has been a favorite topic in Western art for centuries and has become a literary reference for people who don’t even read the Bible. In paintings there is often a man lying on the ground and a great light coming from the sky, and sometimes there are rearing horses in the picture that don’t exist in the text.
But as colorful as this story is, it is the next scene that is especially meaningful for us today. Don’t miss this: Saul’s conversion began on the road to Damascus, but it was finished by the community that was living in fear of his arrival. Christ insisted that Saul become dependant upon the Christians for his sight, for his healing, and for his very life. In other words, the victimizer became dependant upon his victims. And the burden of rescue fell on a man named Ananias.
I have often thought about Ananias, about how he must have felt as he approached the house where the tormentor lay flat on his back. I imagine Ananias pacing up and down the street and approaching the door several times before he can make himself go in. Surely he was afraid. I suspect that he was praying hard as he entered that room, and I know that he kept his eyes open. And yet, despite the roar of his inner feelings, Ananias stretched out his hand, laid it on Saul and said, “Brother” ….”Brother Saul…..”
I saw Ananias at breakfast in Dorchester. I looked around the room and he was everywhere. His hands were preparing to reach out to angry, violent youth. He was clearing his throat to speak to big, dangerous kids and call them “brother,” “sister.” I knew then that I was in the heart of the church, where people of faith respond to the pain of the community, unsure of the outcome but firm in their commitment. I knew then, too, that we have a role to play at Trinity Church. God can heal these broken youngsters, but still depends upon the Church to finish the job. Saul can become Paul, but there must be an Ananias to refocus his life. And while Ananias was a particular man in a distant time in our scriptures, his ministry lives on in the life of the Church. Ananias is the gatekeeper. He reminds us to keep the church open to the world and to the blinded ones that God is transforming. Ananias teaches us to take risks on behalf of Christ, even when we would rather look aside. He coaches us to speak and to say “brother,” “sister” even when the words sound forced and awkward. Ananias inspires us to think strategically about how we can become part of Christ’s transformation of our inner city youth.
I listen carefully for what our role might be and I have a clue from the Mayor of Boston. The mayor is pleading for summer employment for youth. Teenagers in violent neighborhoods need summer jobs. They need jobs for family income because the problems all begin in poverty. They need employment for learning important life skills, such as being on time and being a responsible member of a larger organization. They need an alternative to the streets and an opportunity to gain work skills and self esteem. Right now there are many more teenagers than summer job opportunities. In fact, the mayor says he is short about 4,000 summer youth jobs. Some of you here today may be interested in helping out or you may know someone else who can. Could you hire a young person this summer? We are posting information on the Trinity Church website for you to learn more about this Ananias opportunity.
Others of you may not have jobs to offer, but you can reach out to our inner city youth by supporting TEEP, the acronym for our Trinity Education for Excellence Program. We have a lot of middle school children here in the summer, and we could have them all year round after school if only we could provide transportation. We know how to engage city youth; they are part of our life. We could serve many more of them and give them time off from their violent neighborhoods with more funding for TEEP. I recently visited with some of our TEEP kids. They are very endearing and they are pleased to be in a safe place at Trinity Church. We already have an Ananias role through TEEP and it could be so much more.
For others of us, our primary role may be through prayer. Never underestimate the transforming power of prayer which opens our hearts and minds in ways we cannot imagine. Ananias had a direct conversation with Christ and we must do the same.
Christ continues to change Saul into Paul. So whether it’s through walking, or mentoring, or financial contributions, or through your heartfelt prayers on behalf of our city’s young people, we all have roles to play. The Church must be Ananias to those whose lives are filled with violence. This is our calling, and this is our work. I ask for your prayers, I hope for your passion, and I give thanks for your faithfulness in this ministry.
AMEN |
